Fake Infrared

Here is a fake infrared photo. I set the white balance of my camera to something very green (normally you want to set the white balance to something white). Unfortunately, even with an infrared filter my camera won't take an infrared photo. Camera sensors are so sensitive that they can pick up infrared unless the manufacture puts a filter over the sensor that blocks it out. Most DSLRs have that filter in place.

One way to tell is to put your camera in live view (so you are looking through the LCD screen on the back) and point a TV remote control at the lens and push some buttons on the remote. If you can see the lights on the front of the remote through the LCD then your camera will take an infrared photo. Try the remote trick with a camera phone, you should be able to see the lights on the end of the remote where you normally wouldn't be able to see them.

I found this trick out by accident. I was video recording my son when he was an infant. He was playing with the remote and I noticed lights coming out of the end that I hadn't see before. This came in useful when my xbox remote stopped working. I grabbed the video camera, pointed the remote, pushed some buttons and found that the little diodes on the remote had stopped working. Easy fix, I soldered some others from an old remote. Worked like a charm.